Culture ministry’s cronyism and Arirang TV CEO

Culture ministry’s cronyism and Arirang TV CEO. February. 03, 2016 07:34. by 고미석기자 mskoh119@donga.com.

He was such a nice daddy. When he went on a business trip to the U.S. in May last year, he happened to attend the commencement ceremony of his son who was studying in the U.S. He attended the ceremony and also used his corporate credit card to treat his son’s friends on meals that cost over 1,000 dollars. His business trip to New York in last September also coincidentally overlapped with his family trip. The secret family history was known to the world when his daughter posted her picture on Instagram with “#I’m a bad daughter#tagging along with my dad#who is on a business trip.” Back then, he used his corporate credit card for a dinner with caviar costing over one million won (827 U.S. dollars) with someone. His lie was unveiled to the world when the diplomat with whom he claimed he had the dinner together for reimbursement said he knew nothing about it.

This is a story of Bang Seok-ho, former CEO of Arirang TV who tendered a resignation letter to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry on Tuesday for his lavish business trip scandal. The way-too-much-nice daddy had to step down for moral hazard. It is also suspicious that he used a significant amount of money allocated for business development and sales activities last year in places around where he lives. Arirang TV is witnessing a depletion of the foundation fund for making a deficit of billions of won (millions of dollars) every year.

There was a rumor that those related to Hongik University are sweeping major official positions right after the appointment of Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Kim Jong-deok who graduated from Hongik University and served as the dean of Hongik Graduate School of Advertising and Public Relations, in 2014. This is because that those who are related to Hongik University took positions at government agencies under the ministry including the head of the Korean Film Council. Mr. Bang is also one of those who are related to Hongik University as the former law professor at Hongik was appointed Arirang TV CEO. When the Dong-A Ilbo pointed this out early last year, the ministry said, “Among Hongik alumni, only one out of newly appointed the head of a government agency since the inauguration of the minister.” Of course, Bang was not counted as the graduates of Hongik University.

The ministry said it would conduct a special investigation to probe any inappropriate use of travel expenses and the suspicion over the forging of expenditure reports regardless of Bang’s resignation. It is doubtful whether it will conduct an investigation. Bang is anyway related to Hongik University. If the Park Geun-hye administration wants to call for reform in the public sector, it should first filter out the heads of agencies who were appointed through political connections. Otherwise, it should blow away the minister who practiced such appointments.